The Grid

Virginia DeMarce created a grid containing the names and relationships of all the people who came through the Ring of Fire. See “The Many Halves of Grantville” in the author’s manual to understand why.

She asks that we state emphatically:

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. WE MADE THESE PEOPLE UP!

Now that we’ve established that, you may consider these fictitious persons real for the purposes of the 1632 universe. Canon states that only up-timers from the grid are to be used in fan fiction. (If you expect to have it published) (If you are writing something just for your own amusement, you can have a battalion of Marines with arms and armament, stopping in Grantville for a pack of cigarettes at the moment of the Ring of Fire.)

Please Note: The grid is no longer maintained by Virginia, that duty has passed to the GridMaster. We appreciate Virginia’s years of service.

MS Word DOC Listing of all up-timers who arrived down-time, plus children born since with at least one up-timer parent.

The January 2018 version has been updated to include ethnicity.

To Claim a Character …

Send an e-mail to The GridMaster or ask in the 1632Tech conference on Baen’s Bar to reserve a grid character. Include in the request your real name or a stable, non-changing nom de plume with a given and surname, or they will be ignored.

You can only claim up-time characters who are listed in the .DOC file listing of all up-timers who arrived down-time, plus children born since with at least one up-timer parent.

SPOILER/SLUSH WARNING

The Grid contains information about some characters up through the latest scheduled book. Please don’t bother going through it for snerks, as you may find an unclaimed character whose story only you can write.

Grid Notes

From Mid 2012 Virginia relinquished responsibility for maintaining the grid to a new entity. The GridMaster is now responsible for canonizing stories and handling character claims. The grid program will no longer be run, so characters will no longer be moved around automatically, and marriages, births and deaths will now only occur when an author writes the story.

Veteran Status

Veteran status is in accordance with the US Census 2000 question 20(b).

It does not mean that a person served on a given battlefield. It just indicates what period of history they served in the military (branch not specified unless developed by an author; specialization not determined unless developed by an author). These are the questions about military service from Census 2000, question 20(b):

When did this person serve on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces? Mark a box for EACH period in which this person served.

April 1995 or later

August 1990 to March 1995 (including Persian Gulf War)

September 1980 to July 1990

May 1975 to August 1980

Vietnam era (August 1964–April 1975)

February 1955 to July 1964

Korean conflict (June 1950–January 1955)

World War II (September 1940–July 1947)

Some other time

Throughout the grid, for the sake of simplicity, the annotation WVNG also can be interpreted to include the concept USAR.

United States of Europe (November 1633-indefinite future) with Gustavus Adolphus as emperor

RoF level:

RoF

geographically, the circle of territory transferred down-time from West Virginia, including Grantville, Deborah, and rural areas; politically, by December 1633/January 1634, it was amoeba-shaped because of annexations (all the exact border changes have not been canonized). In December 1633, the entity voted to be called West Virginia County, State of Thuringia (WVCo., SoT). In April 1634, it became West Virginia County, State of Thuringia- Franconia (WVCo., SoTF, after Franconia voted to merge into the SoT).

NUS

New United States (1631–30 November 1633, independent republic; member of the CPE confederacy after August 1632 with Gustavus Adolphus as “Captain General” and military protector; state within the USE after 30 November 1633); the earliest mentioned additional state within it is Badenburg; then Suhl; by April 1632, all of southern Thuringia; by 1 December 1633, all of Thuringia

SoT

State of Thuringia (1 December 1633-April 1634), change of name for NUS, no longer an independent country, but rather a state within the USE; the former “states” of the NUS take on the functions of county administrations within the state (see 1634: The Ram Rebellion for technical explanations)

SoTF

State of Thuringia-Franconia (April 1634-indefinite future), change of name after the Franconian referendum, state within the USE

Gustavus Adolphus’ suggestion of “East Virginia” as the name for the new entity, made in David Weber and Eric Flint, 1633, was not adopted by the inhabitants for various reasons having to do with American History and the American Civil War, primarily.

Known to exist in Thuringia:

West Virginia County [RoF with subsequent annexations]

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt County

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen County

Saxe-Altenburg County [includes not only what Duke Johann Philipp had in 1631, but everything else that he’s managed to lay hands on since the RoF]

Saxe-Coburg County [includes the territories that later became Saxe-Hildburghausen OTL]

Saxe-Eisenach County [includes the territories that later became Saxe-Meiningen OTL]

Saxe-Weimar County [includes Jena]

Badenburg City and County [based on an imaginary pre-RoF Reichsstadt]

Erfurt City and County [includes the territories that OTL belonged to the archbishop of Mainz]

Muehlhausen City and County

Suhl City and County [a new entity which managed to annex the areas around Schmalkalden and Schleusingen, much to the annoyance of their former proprietors; this includes absorbing the former Saxon enclave of Henneberg by autumn 1635]

Eichsfeld County

Gleichen County

Reuss County

Sommersberg County [based on an imaginary pre-RoF Grafschaft around Soemmerda]

Known to exist in Franconia – there are probably quite a few more:

Ansbach County [which under the tender care of Margrave Christian on behalf of his nephews has eaten up Eichstaett, Oettingen, and any number of tiny principalities]

Bamberg County [which has chewed and swallowed imperial knights and small principalities by the dozen; the members of the Bamberg CoC are not patient people]

Bayreuth County [which under the tender care of Margrave Christian has eaten up any number of imperial knights and small principalities; he’s managed to get himself elected as Chairman of the County Board]

Buchenland County [formerly Fulda and the region around it, including the formerly independent imperial knights of the Rhoen-Werra Quarter]

[Suhl City and County – see under Thuringia; it straddles the border along the Thueringerwald]

Wuerzburg County [which has chewed and swallowed imperial knights and small principalities by the dozen]

Rothenburg ob Tauber City and County [which barely escaped the predatory intentions of Ansbach with its life, largely owing to protection offered by various up-timers who had once visited it as tourists while serving with the army in Germany]

GV

Grantville, town within the RoF. After the Ring of Fire, it provided local government services for all of the RoF and its directly annexed territories until December 1633/January 1634, after which a combined city/county government with a mayor/council system was established for West Virginia County (WVCo., SoT/SoTF).

WVCo.

came into existence December 1633/January 1634; from December 1633-March 1634 it was in the State of Thuringia; thereafter in the State of Thuringia-Franconia (SoTF). WVCo. is structured as an incorporated city/county, without separate governmental levels for the town of Grantville and the county as a whole. See also RoF. E.g., the Grantville mayor became the WVCo. mayor, the Grantville police department became the WVCo. police department.

USE Parliament as of July 1635:

NOTE: Up-timers, speaking English to one another, have a tendency to call it a “congress,” although that isn’t technically correct. Down-timers, speaking to one another, tend to call it a “Reichstag” [“Imperial Diet”], although that isn’t technically correct either. It’s a strange and hybrid two-house creation with elements of up-time American, down-time German, both eighteenth-century and twentieth century up-time British, and down-time newly hatched government organization.

USE House of Lords

(Upper House)/equivalent of the former CPE Council of Princes, but with new elements. It consists of the heads of the states/provinces of the USE; elected and appointed members who are commoners are given the courtesy title of “Senator”; one member per province.

SoTF – Ed Piazza, elected head of state, President of the SoTF [Piazza is effectively the Fourth of July party leader in Mike Stearns’ absence as a political general, but sits in the Upper House rather than Commons by virtue of his office as president of the SoTF; vice-president Helene Gundelfinger, down-timer]

Magdeburg Province – Matthias Strigel, invented down-timer, an elected head of state, the CoC-supported governor

Province of the Upper Rhine – Wilhelm Ludwig of Nassau-Saarbrucken as administrator (appointed by GIIA June 1634; historical down-timer); he spends most of his time assisting his father-in-law with the Province of Swabia and brings in Johann Moritz of Nassau-Siegen as his deputy (appointed April 1635; historical down-timer)

Province of the Upper Palatinate – Duke Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, aka Ernst Wettin, as regent until June 1635, then Christian I of Pfalz-Birkenfeld- Bischweiler as regent for Karl Ludwig of the Palatinate (appointed by GIIA; historical down-timer)

Province of Swabia [as of June 1634, to be established once the region has been “fully pacified”] – Margrave Georg Friedrich of Baden-Durlach appointed as administrator by GIIA (by the end of 1635 it will actually consist of what is left after the activities of Wurttemberg, Duke Bernhard, Tyrol, Egon von Fuerstenburg, and various cities turning Swiss) (appointed by GIIA June 1634; historical down-timer)

Tyrol (joined the USE voluntarily in March 1635 under the leadership of the previous regent, Claudia de Medici; historical down-timer) – representative designated by the regency council, which is headed by the chancellor, Dr. William Bienner (historical down-timer)By the end of 1635:

Duchy of Wurttemberg, joins the USE as a state under the disputed provisions of Duke Eberhard’s April 1635 will; the late Eberhard III as Perpetual Duke; head of state the Perpetual Regent (elected); next in line the Vice Regent (elected) [Fourth of July Party]By the end of 1635 [“returns” – see 1635: The Eastern Front]:

Brandenburg – Swedish administrator [TBA by Eric Flint] (as regent for Friedrich Wilhelm, Margrave George William’s fifteen-year-old son, nephew of Gustavus Adolphus’ wife, who became OTL the Great Elector) (appointed)Independent Imperial Cities, one elected representative each in the House of Lords: